Build (backport) an newer Ubuntu package to run on an older Ubuntu version

You are running the tried-and-true Dapper stable release. You notice that Edgy has a newer version of a package you want. What do you do? Well, prior to this, your would head over to the Backports folks and ask for the package. Some packages are deemed by Backporters to be too bleeding-edge or incompatible to be considered for backporting to Dapper. Now what? Welcome prevu! prevu is like your personal Backports developer, building backports with just a single command.

This is a quick guide to using prevu. We will use gdebi as an example package.

6. When completed, look in /var/cache/prevu/edgy-debs. There, you will find freshly generated deb packages! This location is also an APT repository, which can be added to your sources.list like so:

Code:

deb file:/var/cache/prevu/edgy-debs ./

Replace edgy with whatever distro you are running.

Note that not all packages will build. If you don't know how to fix it to build, you probably shouldn't try to do it, because chances are you'll screw up your computer

Also, note that building our own backports is an unsupported thing to do. Please do not bug Ubuntu developers about your broken system or packages if prevu could be the cause.

By default, prevu will build debs for the current distro version you are running. If you would like to build for another distro, just run, for example, DIST=breezy prevu gdebi. Note you need to run DIST=breezy prevu-init first.

Linux's audio architecture is more like the layers of the Earth's crust than the network model, with lower levels occasionally erupting on to the surface, causing confusion and distress, and upper layers moving to displace the underlying technology that was originally hidden

Re: Build (backport) an Edgy package to run on Dapper

I have uploaded a new version of prevu that does not need the build command to be executed as root. This prevents malicious build scripts from screwing with your system.

Note the new .deb download link. After installing the update, run sudo prevu-update to effect the changes. Now, you can just do prevu gdebi, no sudo, but you need to be in the admin group.

Note that sudo is _still_ used to enter the build environment, but root access is dropped as soon as it's possible.

Originally Posted by tuxradar

Linux's audio architecture is more like the layers of the Earth's crust than the network model, with lower levels occasionally erupting on to the surface, causing confusion and distress, and upper layers moving to displace the underlying technology that was originally hidden

Re: Build (backport) an Edgy package to run on Dapper

As far as building firefox-themes-ubuntu, it seems like it first needs human-icon-theme. This is a two-step backport, and prevu 0.2.1 and below do not support it yet. Please wait for prevu 0.2.2 to be released.

When upgrading prevu, you need to run "sudo prevu-update". You also need to run this command between two-step backports for the debs repository to refresh.

Originally Posted by tuxradar

Linux's audio architecture is more like the layers of the Earth's crust than the network model, with lower levels occasionally erupting on to the surface, causing confusion and distress, and upper layers moving to displace the underlying technology that was originally hidden

Re: Build (backport) an Edgy package to run on Dapper

Thanks for the prompt reply. It looks like I'm not building correctly since our checksum don't match. I'm thinking I'll need to retry the steps again. Thanks for the heads up on firefox-themes-ubuntu and I'll wait for an updated prevu version.

Linux's audio architecture is more like the layers of the Earth's crust than the network model, with lower levels occasionally erupting on to the surface, causing confusion and distress, and upper layers moving to displace the underlying technology that was originally hidden

Re: Build (backport) an Edgy package to run on Dapper

To build that particular package, you need to have "cdbs" installed on your machine.

Originally Posted by tuxradar

Linux's audio architecture is more like the layers of the Earth's crust than the network model, with lower levels occasionally erupting on to the surface, causing confusion and distress, and upper layers moving to displace the underlying technology that was originally hidden